Fisheries biologist Alan Klotz sent us this great report from Garrett County. Ice-fishermen enjoyed a long season in Western Maryland; however winter has come to an abrupt end (finally!) Based on the number of phone calls I received last week – trout fishermen are ready to start the spring fishing season. Anglers wanting to harvest a few trout for the frying pan should try Allegany County’s Battie Mixon Pond, Lake Habeeb, and Jennings Run as all received some pre-season trout. Further west in Garrett County try the North Branch Potomac River Put and Take Trout Fishing Areas at Gorman, Kitzmiller, Barnum, and Piedmont, and the Yough River in Friendsville. For those trout anglers wanting to experience some good catch and release fishing should head to Town Creek in the Green Ridge State Forest in Allegany County. With the help of the Nemacolin Chapter of Trout Unlimited, this Delayed Harvest Trout Fishing Area was stocked with a combination of 3,100 brown and rainbow trout during the first week of March. Town Creek has one of the best winter stonefly hatches in Western Maryland. In Garrett County, anglers should try the Catch and Release Trout Fishing Areas of the North Branch Potomac River downstream of the Jennings Randolph Lake Dam (upper C&R Area) and the lower Catch & Release Trout Fishing Area (downstream of Bluehole). The Casselman River Delayed Harvest Trout Fishing Area is scheduled to be stocked this week. Stream flows are well below average for this time of the year.

My son and I ushered in the spring fishing season by hiking into a remote native brook trout stream. Kyle caught and released several beautiful brook trout and we had a wonderful hike seeing a large flock of turkeys and several grouse. It wasn’t that long ago his trout fishing consisted of a Scooby-Doo rod and some crazy-colored powerbait waiting for a bite in the Glades Park Pond. Take your kids fishing –often!

Central/Southern Region:

Yellow perch will be the number one item on most fishermen in these two regions this week and for a good reason. These two regions hold some of the most prolific yellow perch spawning runs in the state. Fishing for yellow perch has been good this past week and during those magic times of a strong run; outstanding. Many of the old haunts for yellow perch and fishermen alike have been coming to life as the waters reach the mid-forties. Places like Allen’s Fresh on the Wicomico River, upper Mattawomen Creek and many of the tributaries of the Patuxent River in the southern region are good places to try for yellow perch this weekend. Dave Sohns reported catching and releasing close to 50 fat female yellow perch at Wayson’s Corner on the Patuxent this past Sunday and holds up two that he kept for dinner.

Fishermen in the central region have been enjoying excellent fishing for yellow perch for a good month now in the lower Susquehanna and Northeast Rivers. Fishing in some of the deeper holes has been the ticket and lately the deep hole on the east side of Garrett Island up near the Conowingo Dam has been a hot spot. Small shad darts, tubes and grubs have been a favorite when tipped with a small minnow for this type of fishing. There is a fishermen’s litter clean up scheduled for April 25th at the Old Conowingo Boat Ramp to clean the area up and possibly the new Octoraro Trail. Rivers such as the Severn have also been good places to fish this week for yellow perch and other species such as crappie and chain pickerel. Charles McNeily was fishing in the upper Magothy this past Sunday when he caught and released this nice chain pickerel.

This weekend should offer good fishing opportunities for yellow perch in many of the upper tributary waters of the eastern region. Yellow perch fishing was reported to be good this week in the upper Choptank near Greensboro and it would be safe to say that the Tuckahoe and upper Nanticoke are also experiencing yellow perch runs this week. The word from the popular yellow perch spot at Wye Mills is that the beavers downstream have other ideas about yellow perch passage this year. Apparently there is a beaver dam a distance below Wye Mills and is blocking the fishes passage.

Local ponds and lakes are warming up and fishermen are finding chain pickerel active and to a lesser degree crappie and largemouth bass. The crappie and bass are holding deep and are sluggish but a slow presentation will often entice these fish to pick up a bait.